Tradition in Furniture

There’s nothing more traditionally American than leaning back in a hickory rocker enjoying a mild autumn day. When creating a country character for your home, old hickory furniture and lighting may be the best way to recapture generations past.

You may be asking why cedar furniture is so American.   Since the early 1800’s American pioneers have understood the value of rustic hickory furniture.  As they settled across the prairies, they saw the hickory saplings growing between large trees. The saplings grew tall and thin and those pioneers, looking for furniture options, realized these trees may be the gold of the Midwest.

Working with these saplings, they discovered they could cut them near the bottom and use the long thin trunks to form table or chair frames as well as other furniture pieces. It took nothing more than a little boiling water to soften the tree and it would be easily form into the intended shape. Parts of the inside bark could also be woven into a kind of cloth to create the seats and backs for the chairs. Every part was useful. In addition, they noticed the trees grew back from the stump, replenishing the supply of saplings.

One Indiana man, Bill Richardson also saw the gold in this tree. He started creating and selling chairs made of hickory in the late 1800’s in his town of Martinsville, Indiana.  The chairs were extremely popular. So much so, legend has it Richardson made the original hoop chairs that were used in President Andrew Jackson’s home.

Seeing the success of the business, the residents of the Martinsville community decided this was a company they could all be a part of, so they worked together to create these furniture pieces and began the Old Hickory Furniture company.

While you can still get the old traditional pieces, such as the old hickory chairs and Andrew Jackson rocker, the company has definitely expanded in the last 110 years, now offering old hickory bedroom furniture (imagine log cabin living, sinking into a hickory bed). You can get an old hickory sofa for the living room, and even an old hickory desk for the office.